The Trump Effect: This Talent Agency Is Turning Its Oscar Party into a Refugee Rally

Instead of throwing its annual glitzy Oscar party, this year the United Talent Agency will host a pro-immigration rally to support refugees and the American Civil Liberties Union. The event will take place at the company’s Los Angeles headquarters on February 24, just two days before the ceremony, according to The Hollywood Reporter; the agency plans to donate $250,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union and to the International Rescue Committee.

“This is a moment that demands our generosity, awareness and restlessness,” U.T.A. C.E.O. Jeremy Zimmer wrote in a letter to employees. “Our world is a better place for the free exchange of artists, ideas, and creative expression. If our nation ceases to be the place where artists the world over can come to express themselves freely, then we cease, in my opinion, to be America.”

“When fear and division get the better of a society, artists are among the first to feel the impact—and to denounce the ill winds,” he continued.

This is just the latest example of how the current administration has changed business as usual in Hollywood. U.T.A.’s event is a response to Donald Trump's recent executive order, which effectively barred people traveling from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States. Within the film industry, the ban has already affected several filmmakers and stars working their way through the awards season circuit. Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi, who is Iranian, recently announced that he would not be attending the Academy Awards this year as a result of the executive order. Though his film The Salesman is nominated for best foreign film, Farhadi feels he wouldn’t feel comfortable making the trip if given special consideration (Iran is one of the banned countries), citing the “unjust circumstances.” Taraneh Alidoosti, the star of the film, will also be skipping the Oscars. “Trump’s visa ban for Iranians is racist,” she declared on Twitter.

After learning about U.T.A.’s decision, Farhadi, who is currently in Tehran, said he is “honored and in tears,” according to the company.

U.T.A.’s party is one of the first major Oscar events to shift its focus as a direct result of Trump’s leadership, though the Academy itself has yet to change any events due to the ban or the general onslaught of chaotic political news. Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs did, however, address the ban at the annual Oscar nominees luncheon this past Monday.

“There are some empty chairs in this room,” Boone Isaacs said during her speech, clearly referring to artists like Farhadi. “There is a struggle globally today over artistic freedom that feels more urgent than at any time since the 1950s. Art has no borders. Art has no language and doesn’t belong to a single faith.”

In decades past, the Academy has shifted some events because of the political climate. In 1968, for example, the ceremony was postponed for two days after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1981, it was postponed for one day after the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.

Artists have also skipped the ceremony for political reasons. Last year, Ryan Coogler,Ava DuVernay,Janelle Monáe, and more attended a star-studded charity event the same night as the Oscars in order to raise awareness for the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

This year’s Academy Awards are set to take place on February 26. So far, no changes or delays have been announced.